Kazakhstan is throttling the internet nationwide to silence niche political opponent

In Kazakhstan, trying to watch the World Cup online, or even just talking about the games with friends, has become really difficult.

This is because the Kazakh Government has taken to throttling the internet across the country for a couple of hours or so every evening. And their reason for doing this is quite remarkable.

Small-time political opposition

The throttling can be traced back to a court decision in March of this year when the opposition group Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) was declared an extremist organization.

Kazakhstan is ruled by President Nursultan Nazarbayev and has been since it gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. While it is officially a democratic presidential republic, it is a false democracy since political opposition and any form of criticism of the Government is not only rare but also extremely risky.

The DVK was established by Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former Government official who currently lives in self-imposed exile overseas.

He has taken to delivering political speeches and rallying calls against the current regime via live videos on Facebook live, a strategy that has worked pretty well for one of the most prominent opposition politicians in Russia, Alexei Navalny.

However, while Navalny has a fairly substantial support base in Russia, the DVK is not a major political force in Kazakhstan, with a very narrow support base.

But, despite this, the Government chose to take steps to declare the party an extremist organisation.

Unintended consequences

This has made sharing any pro-DVK illegal in Kazakhstan and the Government has requested that all DVK content be taken down from a whole host of different websites, including YouTube, Facebook, and Vkontakte. So far, only Russian-based sites have complied.

Another step they have decided to take is to throttle the internet across the entire country at times when Ablyazov’s videos are being broadcast.

This has the effect of preventing Kazakh citizens from being able to stream them, as their internet speeds are too slow. But it also has enormous, and presumably unintended, knock-on effects too.

One such effect is that most social media sites have become unusable for between two and three hours every evening, a time when many people are looking to kick back and relax online in the evening.

As one Kazakh citizen, Marat Kiyashev, a doctor from Almaty, told Eurasianet.org, this has really annoyed Kazakhs since the FIFA World Cup 2018 kicked off in neighbouring Russia.

“Today I couldn’t go onto Facebook and talk with my friends about the awesome match between Belgium and Panama,” he said. “It really made me mad.”

As well as social media, lots of Kazakhs will be seeking to stream matches online and also watching online content on sites such as YouTube. This is now impossible for long stretches every night.

The opposite effect

The irony is that by seeking to stop people from watching Ablyazov’s videos, the Government is actually making people more interested in them. He is a niche political figure, but by highlighting him in this way, the regime in Kazakhstan is making him seem much more important and significant than he is.

About The Author

David is VPNCompare's News Editor. Anything going on in the privacy world and he's got his eye on it. He's also interested in unblocking sports allowing him to watch his favourite football team wherever he is in the world. Away from writing, he enjoys reading and politics. He is currently learning Mandarin too... slowly.